TORONTO BUDGET COMMITTEE DOES NOT SUPPORT 2024 OLYMPIC BID

Toronto’s possible bid for the 2024 Olympics has hit a bit of a snag, as none of the city’s budget committee members endorsed a Toronto bid at a meeting this week.

Several committee members expressed their opposition to the bid, and the closest thing Toronto 2024 had to support was a hypothetical endorsement if the city’s bid gets the hosting cost covered by the private sector.

The budget committee can’t necessarily kill a Toronto 2024 bid – The Star reports that city mayor John Toryand the Canadian Olympic Committee are the ones who must ultimately put in a bid – but their non-endorsement certainly hurts the momentum of the campaign.

The idea for a Toronto 2024 bid came out of a groundswell of national pride in how the city hosted the Pan American Games last month. But city council members said the harsh financial realities of how much hosting an Olympic event costs put a damper on that excitement for a Toronto-based Olympic Games.

The Toronto bid also had to deal with the fact that Los Angeles seems set to get into the race as a last-minute bid. Toronto would have been the only North American bid after Boston’s proposal collapsed, but the addition of Los Angeles makes it more difficult for Toronto to ultimately win the Games.